Don Miller
So far it has been all April Showers bring May flowers over here in Norway. It hasn’t helped that I have been battling a cold since I landed in Oslo. It hasn’t been all foggy and soggy though.
I took the 7 hour train from Oslo to Bergen on the West coast of Norway. Rail Europe says that it is “one of the best scenic train rides in the world, reaching the highest altitudes of any other train ride in Europe, and shocking travelers with the most dramatic landscape transformations as the seasons change from one to the next”.
I had a window seat and wasn’t tired so I saw all seven hours of it. Maybe I am a little jaded (I am). I was expecting more given all the Hyperbole. It wasn’t dramatic mountain terrain like up in Banff, Canada. More rolling hills at 3000 feet. A perfect place for endless cross country ski trails. The Blue Sky sun reflected off the snow made my eyes burn after a while since my glasses don’t transition dark when looking through a window.
I was happy when the train went through a tunnel, and there are a lot of them during the second half of the ride. The down side is that they probably tunneled under all the more dramatic scenery. I was glad to be off the train at the end. Even if it was raining pretty hard in Bergen and I had to walk to the Merkan Guesthouse. Bergen is small and I got to the hotel while still dry-ish.
I dropped my pack, grabbed the umbrella and headed back out. Like I said, Bergen are is small. The interesting parts are all pretty near. It was McDonald’s for dinner though. Just too lazy to search out a proper dinner in the rain. I looked at my weather App and it was showing rain for the next few days. The exact amount of time I was planning to be on Bergen.
It was very similar to Seattle, the hard rains were just occasional. I wasn’t surprised to see a placard on a Totem Pole gifted from Seattle stating that the towns are sister cities.
It wasn’t too bad, I would wake up, have a slow leisurely breakfast and watch it rain. It would ease up around lunch time and I went out to be a tourist for the afternoon when the everything turned wet again.
The main reason I was in Bergen was to do a Fjord tour. Most tours were still closed for the winter so my decision was easy. A 3 hour boat tour on a fast ferry up and back. The rain stopped for pretty much the whole of the trip. It ended up being a really pretty ride even under cold gray skies.
I roamed around for a bit that evening but it was a quiet off season Tuesday night. I needed to rest up any way to burn this cold out so I was happy with an early night.
The next day was hike day. I don’t have any proper hiking gear with me other than my shoes so I wont be getting to far out in the woods on this trip. Luckily, there is a trail that climbs up to a Bergen Overlook. I could have taken the incline tram but that cost money and I really need the exercise.
You can take trails deep into the mountains but my lack of equipment, food and water plus the darkening clouds held me up at the overlook. Before the rains started, there was an hour or so of sunshine, perfect timing. There were a few drops along the way but the real rain didn’t start up until I got back to town.
I waited the rain out until dinner time which was when the rain stopped again. I ended up having a Whale Meat burger just because it isn’t something you get
everyday. Be glad for that. It was more of a cut of meat, not ground up like hamburger is. It was tough and stringy. Bite into it and you have to grind away at it. Even then, the whole chunk of meat slides out from between the bread as you try to pull off a bite. I’ll stick to McDonald’s.
The next day rain magic was nowhere to be found. The heavy rain didn’t lift at all. I ended up sitting around the guesthouse kitchen until I got bored and caught the bus to the airport.
As soggy as it was, I stayed dry and pretty much saw everything I wanted to see in my couple of days there and stayed mostly dry during the effort.
